Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379

www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom

A novel 1
2 single-mode 1300/1550 nm wavelength

division multiplexer with output facet-tilted MMI waveguide
Shyh-Lin Tsao *, Huang-Chen Guo, Chun-Wei Tsai
Optical Fiber System Laboratory, Institute of Electro-Optical Science and Technology, National Taiwan Normal University,
No. 88, Sec. 4, Ting-Chou Rd., Taipei 116, Taiwan, ROC
Received 8 April 2003; received in revised form 4 November 2003; accepted 25 December 2003

Abstract

In this paper, we design a novel 1
2 1300/1550 nm wavelength division multiplexer based on silicon-on-insulator
(SOI) substrate. The wavelength division multiplexer has a tilted facet of our designed multimode interference (MMI)
region. Tuning the angle of the tilted MMI facet, one can adjust the output wavelength, power ratio and polarization
deviations. A design example shows that the insertion loss for 1300 and I550 nm wavelengths can be reduced to )0.227
and )0.31 dB, respectively. According to the beam-propagation method (BPM) simulation, the crosstalk can be im-
proved to below )22 dB. The polarization-dependent (PDL) loss is 0.033 and 0.01 dB for 1300 and 1550 nm wave-
lengths without attaching single-mode fiber (SMF), respectively.
Ó 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Wave optics; Multiplexers; Optical beam splitters; Integrated optics; Interference

1. Introduction wavelength division devices have been demon-

Intensive research has recently been conducted
on semiconductor optical devices for wavelength
division multiplexer as reported in literatures [1–5].
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) devices
for subscriber networks have become an important
issue [6]. Moreover, the integration of optical ele-
ment devices with wavelength selective functions
has also attracted a lot of attention. Several
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-2-29350349; fax: +886-2-
29350382.
E-mail address: jimmyslt@cc.ntnu.edu.tw (S.-L. Tsao).
strated using Bragg gratings [7–9], liquid crystal
filters [10,11], fiber ring filters [12,13], MEMS
systems [14,15] and other methods [16–18]. One
promising technique is using silicon-on-insulator
[19–22] waveguide devices in WDM optical com-
munication systems [23–25]. CMOS (complemen-
tary metal-oxide semiconductor) electronics on
SOI wafers have shown promise as the future
technology for low-power and high-speed appli-
cations [26–28]. Although Bragg gratings, liquid
crystals and MEMS are candidates, the multimode
interference (MMI) WDM device has a smaller
size and is compatible with the CMOS fabrication
process. Some good SOI waveguide structures

0030-4018/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2003.12.082
372 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379

have also been proved for reducing the optical 2. Tilted facet MMI SOI wavelength division
insertion loss and optical crosstalk in 1300 and multiplexer
1550 nm optical communication windows [28,29].
For the above reasons, we choose the SOI struc- In this section, we design a 1
2 MMI SOI
ture for producing wavelength division devices. WDM device for two wavelength bands (1300 and
Recently, some good WDM applications using 1550 nm) multiplexing. Fig. 1 shows the cross-
MMI waveguide structure were reported [30,31]. section of the 1
2 MMI SOI waveguide we
Therefore, we apply the MMI technique to realize designed at the input plane. For standard UNI-
a 1
2 compact MMI SOI 1300/1550 nm wave- BOND SOI substrates, the silicon film thickness is
length division multiplexer that is smaller than the usually 3 lm. The buried silicon oxide layer per-
traditional fiber-optic 1300/1550 nm wavelength formed as a cladding layer is 1 lm thick. The de-
division multiplexer. Meanwhile, integration of sign for SOI waveguide single-mode operation
hybrid photonic devices is becoming an important should follow the two equations [39]:
issue for applications in optical communication h
networks [32]. We think that a compact MMI ¼ r P 0:5 ð1Þ
H
wavelength division multiplexer is very useful in
hybrid photonic device integration. and
Couplers play an important role in optical W r
6 0:3 þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi : ð2Þ
communication systems and can be used to com- H 1  r2
bine or split the power of different optical chan-
Following the above equations, we design the rib
nels. Single-mode fiber couplers are also used to
waveguide with width Wi ¼ 3 lm, rib height
make optical fiber WDM components [33–35],
H ¼ 3 lm and slab height h ¼ 1:9 lm for pro-
such as 1300/1550 nm WDM fiber-optic direc-
viding single-mode operation. Fig. 2 shows the top
tional couplers. Although these fiber-optic direc-
view of the output facet-tilted 1
2 MMI SOI
tional couplers typically exhibit losses less than 0.5
WDM rib waveguide region. The width and length
dB and channel crosstalk lower than )16 dB [36],
of the input port are denoted as Wi and L1 , re-
fiber-optical directional couplers have a large
spectively. The width and length of the output
coupling length (about several centimeters). SOI
MMI devices can reduce the coupling length to the
millimeter range. Compared with WDM fiber-
optic directional couplers, our SOI WDM coupler
can have a much smaller size (ffi1 mm long) which
is useful in realizing the OE-VLSI devices. Re-
cently, fiber and integrated-optical couplers have
been combined by various methods for WDM
systems [37]. Therefore, such a device can also be
applied to fiber-optic transmission systems.
In this paper, we design and simulate the wave-
length response of MMI wavelength division mul-
tiplexers based on an SOI wafer. The BPM_CAD
software is used to simulate a lot of conditions for
device design parameter sorting. The simulation
method in this software package uses the beam-
propagation method (BPM) [38], which can simu-
late the light propagation in waveguides by
performing a step-by-step numerical calculation
along the propagation direction. The wave equa- Fig. 1. Cross-section of our 1
2 MMI SOI waveguide at the
tions can be solved in three dimensions. input plane.
 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379 373

Fig. 2. Top view of the 1
2 output facet-tilted MMI SOI wavelength division multiplexer.

port1 are denoted as WO1 and L2 , respectively. The
width and length of the output port2 are denoted
as WO2 and (L2 þ DL), respectively. The length of
the MMI waveguide is defined as Lm and width as
Wm . The slanted distance between output1 and
output2 is denoted as DL. The wavelength of input
light is kin . The nr is the refractive index of the
MMI region. We follow the design formula for
designing the MMI waveguide [40],
nr W 2
L ¼ kk ; ð3Þ
kin
where kk is the corresponding wavelength coeffi-
cient constant. Using the above equations, we did
many simulations after calculating the parameters.
The BPM simulations are described in the fol-
lowing section.
and 1550 nm by using BPM. After many simula-
tions, we found a compact MMI size for WDM
usage. Based on Eqs. (1) and (2), we calculate the
single-mode waveguide width for SOI wafer.
Based on the simulations, we choose the geomet-
rical parameters Wi ¼ 3 lm and L1 ¼ 50 lm for
1300 and 1500 nm wavelength demultiplexing.
Then, we adjust the length of the lower edge of the
MMI region for tilting the output facet. Figs. 3
and 4 show the BPM simulation results for the
transmittance with varying DL between tilted
length 0 and 90 lm for 1300 and 1550 nm wave-
length, respectively. For 1300 nm wavelength, the

3. BPM simulation results

The 1300 and 1550 nm wavelength bands are

the major communication windows for optical fi-
ber communication systems. Single-mode SOI
waveguide devices with low propagation loss have
also been fabricated at k ¼ 1300 and 1550 nm [29].
To characterize our tilted-facet MMI SOI wave-
length division multiplexer, the analysis of propa-
gation modes (TE and TM modes), waveguide
losses, near field output intensity mode pattern Fig. 3. BPM simulated tilting effect at output1 with 1300 nm
and crosstalk are investigated at wavelength 1300 wavelength.
374 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379
Fig. 4. BPM simulated tilting effect at output2 with 1550 nm
wavelength.
output1 maximum transmittance is 0.969 and oc-
curs at the tilted length DL ¼ 52 lm as shown in
Fig. 3. For 1550 nm wavelength, the output2
maximum transmittance value occurs at the tilted
length DL ¼ 47 lm in the output2 and the trans-
mittance is 0.937 as shown in the Fig. 4. From our
simulation results, we can tune the tilted MMI
structure to change the self-imaging conditions.
Due to the self-imaging effect in a multimode
waveguide, the input spot profile can be repro-
Fig. 5. Lightwave propagation diagram of 1
2 1300/1550 nm MMI SOI wavelength division multiplexer with S-bending waveguides.
duced in single and multiple spot images at peri-
odic distances along the propagation direction of
the waveguide. We find that tilting the MMI
geometrical design can vary the self-image pattern.
Hence, we use these results to design the self-image
original position and let the light propagate along
the direction of our designed tilted MMI wave-
guide. Using the tilted MMI structure not only
preserves wavelength division performance, but
also serves to substantially reduce the PDL and the
crosstalk of the device. The best parameters for
1300 and 1550 nm wavelength division multiplex-
ers are: WO1 ¼ WO2 ¼ 2:5 lm, d ¼ 1 lm and L2 ¼
20 lm. The optimal values of the tilted length are
DL ¼ 52 lm for 1300 nm wavelength and
DL ¼ 47 lm for 1550 nm wavelength. The length
of MMI region Lm in the tilted region is from 890
to 980 lm, and the width of MMI region Wm is 6
lm. So, the propagation loss of the single-mode
SOI rib waveguides can be controlled to below 0.1
dB/cm. In our analysis, we use Eq. (3) to adjust the
width and length of the MMI waveguide. The k1300
and K1550 coefficients are set to 9.667 and 12.06,
respectively.
Fig. 5 shows the lightwave propagation dia-
gram of the 1
2 1300/1550 nm MMI SOI wave-
length division multiplexer with S-bend
waveguides. The lx and lz are the lengths of the x
and z coordinates, O1 , O2 are outputs at the MMI
 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379
outputs. O01 and O02 are the output ports at S-bend
output. The designed single-mode SOI S-bending
waveguides are used for connecting optical fibers.
The optical fibers can be connected to the output
ends of the rib waveguides, the separation between
the two waveguides must be larger than the fiber-
cladding diameter. However, the bending loss will
increase as the separation between the two output
waveguides increases. Hence, using the following
equation for calculating the separation 2lx between
the two output waveguides of the S-bending rib
waveguides [41],
4pxlz
2lx ¼ : ð4Þ
2pz þ lz sin 2pðz=lz Þ
We chose 160 lm as the separation. We also de-
signed the S-bending rib waveguides with lz ¼ 1
cm to decrease the bending loss as much as pos-
sible. Finally, the insertion loss of the SOI bending
output waveguide is below 0.6 dB.
Two light wavelengths 1300 and 1550 nm with
fundamental mode are fed from the input of a
single-mode rib waveguide of our designed 1
2
MMI SOI wavelength division multiplexer. The
simulated output mode patterns of light wave-
lengths at 1300 and 1550 nm coming from O1 and
O2 are shown in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively. The
insertion loss and crosstalk are )0.227 and )25.36
Fig. 6. Simulated output mode pattern of light wavelength 1300 nm at output O1 .
375
dB for the 1300 nm wavelength, respectively. And
for the 1550 nm wavelength, the insertion loss and
crosstalk are )0.31 and )22.73 dB, respectively.
We applied a tilted MMI region to design the 1
2
MMI SOI WDM because of its low polarization
sensitivity. Fig. 8 shows the BPM simulation re-
sults of the MMI output at 1300 nm for TE mode
and TM mode polarized lights. The dash lines and
solid lines show the TE and TM mode output light
fields, respectively. We can find that the output
peak position shift between the TE and TM modes
is about 0.4 lm deviation. The TE and TM mode
outputs of wavelength 1550 nm are shown in
Fig. 9. For the S-bending waveguides, Fig. 10
shows the TE and TM mode outputs from O01 and
O02 corresponding to wavelengths 1300 and 1550
nm, respectively. The output peak position shift
between the TE and TM modes is only 0.15 lm,
which is smaller than the deviation at wavelength
1300 nm. In Fig. 10, the difference in transmitted
power for the two modes at the same wavelength is
defined as the polarization-dependent loss (PDL).
We calculate the PDL with and without attaching
a standard step-index single-mode fiber (SMF).
Without attaching the single-mode fiber, the PDL
of the device of the output port1 is 0.033 dB for
1300 nm wavelength. The PDL of the device of the
output port2 is 0.01 dB for 1550 nm wavelength.
376 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379

Fig. 7. Simulated output mode pattern of light wavelength 1550 nm at output O2 .

Fig. 8. BPM simulation results of the MMI output at 1300 nm for TE-mode and TM-mode lightwave.

By attaching the single-mode fiber without taping
SOI waveguide, the PDL value of the output port1
may reach 5 and 7 dB for wavelength 1300 and
1550 nm, respectively. However, some papers [42]
report that the mode mismatching loss can be re-
duced to as low as 0.17 dB between a rectangular
waveguide and a circular waveguide, such as fi-
bers, by using mode matching methods [43]. We
believe that by adding the SOI mode matching
taper, the PDL can be significantly improved.
 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379 377

Fig. 9. BPM simulation results of the MMI output at 1550 nm for TE-mode and TM-mode lightwave.

Fig. 10. Wavelength response of the 1
2 SOI output facet-tilted MMI SOI wavelength division multiplexer for TE-mode and TM-
mode at outputs O1 and O2 , respectively.

Fig. 11 shows the wavelength response of the 1
2
MMI SOI wavelength division multiplexer output
facet tilted for TE-mode and TM-mode at output
O1 and O2 , respectively. The wavelength shifts
between the TE and TM modes for the 1300 and
1550 nm wavelength bands are defined as S1 and
S2 , respectively. The optimal values of the tilted
length are DL ¼ 52 lm for 1300 nm wavelength
and DL ¼ 47 lm for 1550 nm wavelength. For
S1 ¼ 0:3 lm and S2 ¼ 0:5 lm, the crosstalk at O1 ,
378 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379
Fig. 11. Wavelength response of the 1
2 SOI output facet-tilted MMI SOI wavelength division multiplexer for TE-mode and TM-
mode at outputs O01 and O02 , respectively.
of our designed 1
2 MMI SOI WDM is )25 dB
for both of the TE and TM modes at 1300 nm
wavelength.
4. Conclusion
The design and analysis of a 1
2 single-mode
1300/1550 nm output facet-tilted MMI SOI wave-
length division multiplexer has been presented in
this paper. Using BPM_CAD simulations, we show
the wavelength response of this device.
According to results of simulation, the trans-
mitted power (insertion loss) of output port1 is
)0.227 dB for 1300 nm wavelength, and the
transmitted power of output port2 is )0.31 dB for
1550 nm wavelength. The crosstalk for 1300 nm
wavelength is )25.36 dB and the crosstalk for 1550
nm wavelength is )22.73 dB. Without attaching
the single-mode fiber, the device PDL value of the
output port1 is 0.033 dB for 1300 nm wavelength,
and the device PDL value of the output port2 is
0.01 dB for 1550 nm wavelength. We also can find
the optimal values of the tilted length DL ¼ 52 lm
for 1300 nm wavelength and DL ¼ 47 lm for 1550
nm wavelength. These values achieve the minimal
TE and TM mode wavelength response deviation.
Using such a tilted structure to minimize the po-
larization effect for both outputs can be optimized
with proper geometrical MMI SOI structure de-
sign by tuning the slant distance DL.
From this research, we numerically demon-
strated a feasible compact WDM device with low
crosstalk, low polarization sensitivity and good
wavelength response. No complex fabrication
technology should be required for our 1
2 MMI
SOI WDM device. Such a device can be mass
produced for future optical WDM networks. We
believe very large-scale photonic integrated circuits
(VLSPIC) will include many such devices at I/O
ports for independent processing of 1300 and 1550
nm signals inside the VLSPIC.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported in part by the National
Science Council under contract NSC 92-2213-E-
003-013, NDL 92S-C-025, NSC 92 2219-E-003-001
and NSC 92-2622-E-003-001-CC3. This work also
partially supported by National Taiwan Normal
University under contract 91091016 (research pro-
 S.-L. Tsao et al. / Optics Communications 232 (2004) 371–379
ject for new educator) and ‘‘Application and de-
velopment of novel magneto-optical materials’’
under contract ORD 93-1. The authors thank Mr.
Yi-Jr Jou and Mr. Yi Jr Chen for their typing as-
sistance. The authors also appreciate the editor and
reviewers valuable comments. Our gratitude also
goes to the Academic Paper Editing Clinic, NTNU.
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